A Guide to the Marian Pour-El Papers, 1940-2004

The Pour-El Papers, 1935-2004, consist
of Pour-El’s research papers, research papers
of other mathematicians, handwritten notes, professional correspondence, and printed
materials related to university activities, professional organizations, conferences,
fellowships and grants, honors and awards, and women’s issues. Also included are
biographical materials, school records, personal correspondence, and printed
materials regarding women’s issues.

Marian Pour-El (1928-2009) was born in New York City, New York. She completed her
bachelor’s degree in physics at Hunter College (1945), her A.M. in mathematics at
Harvard College (1951), and continued her studies in mathematical logic at Harvard
to earn her Ph.D. in 1958. She was one of the first and only female students in the
Harvard mathematics department, a trend that she encountered throughout her
career.

During her Ph.D. studies, Pour-El left Harvard to study under logicians in Berkeley,
where she met her future husband, Akiva Pour-El, who was pursuing his doctorate in
biochemistry. After receiving her Ph.D., she moved to University Park,
Pennsylvania, to begin a post as a professor of mathematics at Pennsylvania State
University. Pour-El taught there for the next seven years, except for a one-year
sabbatical visiting position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New
Jersey, from 1962-1964, where she met mathematician Kurt Gödel. She left
Pennsylvania State University in 1968 to accept a professorship at the University of
Minnesota in the Twin Cities, remaining where she remained until her retirement in
2000. From 1969 to 1970, Pour-El was a visiting professor at the University of
Bristol in England.

Her research produced over 30 published works,including one book, Computability in
Analysis and Physics, co-authored with Ian Richards. Along with teaching duties and
research, Pour-El served on a number of university committees that included
university procedural matters, computer science department planning, search
committees, and women graduate students.

Pour-El actively participated in mathematics organizations, including the American
Mathematical Society (AMS), Mathematical Association of America (MAA), American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Conference Board of the
Mathematical Sciences (CBMS), Association for Symbolic Logic (ASL), and the
Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). She sat on various committees,
particularly with AMS, including the Committee for Committees, Committee on
Translations from Russians, Committee to Monitor Problems in Communication, and the
Committee on Professional Ethics, among others.

A significant portion of Pour-El’s involvement in the mathematical community and
scholarship came from the many presentations she made at conferences, lectures, and
symposiums both in the United States but internationally. In addition, she was
invited to speak at events in Hungary, England, the Czech Republic, China, Japan,
Germany, and Russia.

Pour-El received several honors, including a symposium held in her honor in Japan
(1993), election as an AAAS fellow (1983), and election to the Hunter Hall of Fame
(1975). She belonged to Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Pi Mu Epsilon, and Sigma Pi Sigma.
In addition to her fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study, she was awarded
fellowships from the National Academy of Science and the Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science.

Due to the commitments to their respective careers, Pour-El and her husband lived
apart for a large portion of their marriage in varying amounts of time and distance.
Because of this, Pour-El and her husband often raised their daughter, Ina, in a
single-parent household. She wrote several articles about her nontraditional
marriage, including, “Spatial Separation in Family Life: A Mathematician’s Choice,”
published in Mathematics Tomorrow. She was
especially interested in the advancement of women in society and in the workplace,
particularly in mathematics and sciences.

The Pour-El papers, 1940-2004, consist of Pour-El’s research papers, research papers
of other mathematicians, handwritten notes, professional correspondence, and printed
materials related to university activities, professional organizations, conferences,
fellowships and grants, honors and awards, and women’s issues. Also included are
biographical materials, school records, personal correspondence, and printed
materials regarding women’s issues. The collection is divided into four series:
Professional, Personal, Photographs, and Audio-Visual.

The bulk of the collection is in the Professional series, which documents Pour-El’s
and others’ published works as well as correspondence with other mathematicians
around the world, among them Kurt Godel, Lenore Blum, Erwin Engeler, John Myhill,
Ian Richards, and Anthony Dunlop. Other contents include handwritten notes detailing
Pour-El’s work, university activities, salary reports, committee work, activity
reports, and Vitae drafts. Pour-El’s many honors and awards are documented, along
with her numerous travel and research grant awards.

The Personal series documents Pour-El’s interest in women’s issues, school records,
correspondence with classmates and friends, and journals, primarily of her travels
abroad. A scrapbook documents her education, from middle school through graduate school.

The Photographs series documents Pour-El’s international travels to Europe, Israel,
and Asia, including her fellowship with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Also included are several photographs of Pour-El herself at various times in her life.

Finally, the Audio-Visual series contains 8 mm film and audiocassette recordings taken
by Pour-El, documenting her travels, attendance at mathematical meetings, conference
presentations, and oral history.

Forms part of the Archives of American Mathematics.

Note: The scrapbook in the Personal series was partially
disassembled for preservation purposes. However, photocopies were taken of the pages
in their original configuration, which are included with the collection.